Civil Services: Aptitude tests to replace prelims

The Union government has agreed to a proposal to introduce a Civil Services Aptitude Test (CSAT) in place of the Civil Services (Preliminary) examination. The issue has been pending since 2000 when the Alagh Committee first came out with this proposal

The minister of state for personnel, public grievances and pensions, Prithviraj Chavan, informed the Rajya Sabha that CSAT would be a common paper on aptitude test replacing the optionals. The government would notify the exam with details of the syllabus soon, he added.